


Budapest

by JustCaity



Category: Black Widow (Comics), Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-28
Updated: 2015-09-07
Packaged: 2018-04-17 15:06:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4671185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustCaity/pseuds/JustCaity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What really happened in Budapest? Clint's not entirely sure if he wants to remember it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry this is a short chapter, it's just a practice one. So tell me if you like it, and if I should continue. Thanks and enjoy!

There's a knock on the door. Why on earth would there be a knock on Clint Barton's door at three in the afternoon on his first day off in three months. He's been on nonstop missions lately, and he was really enjoying his break, but no, a knock was interrupting it.

Sighing, Clint got up off of the couch and he trudges over to the door, where the knocking hasn't stopped yet. When he opens the door, he sees Agent Coulson, his handler, and Director Fury. He stands there, shocked to see the two men in his doorway.

Clint gulps, starting to return to his normal and annoying self. He must really be in trouble for the director to be knocking on his door. "What can I do for you?" He asked, finally being fully alert at the sight of them at his door.

Coulson smiles at him, a sign that he's not in trouble. Clint lets out a silent breath. "Just come with us, Agent Barton."

Clint steps out into the SHIELD corridor, wearing a pair of jeans and a tight, purple shirt, and closes the door behind him. He follows the two men, that he trusts the most, down several halls and corridors before they stop outside of a rarely used conference room.

Confused, Clint follows them into the room and takes a seat next to Coulson. Fury sits on the other side of Clint. He takes this time, obviously waiting for more people, to scan the room. There are only six chairs in the room, the ones they're sitting in and three across from them, at an oval table. The table itself could fit around fifteen to twenty people, but there are only six chairs in the entire room. Their guest must be important. 

Several minutes of absolute silence pass when the other door opens. Two serious-looking business-type guys enter and stand on either side of the door, one of then says something into his earpiece, but it's quiet so Clint can't hear it. Two more guys enter the room through the same door and stand at either side of the other door, one of them said something into his earpiece too.

Three people enter the room next, the last one closed the door behind them. The three men sit across from him, Coulson, and Fury. Clint's mouth falls open as he realizes who just sat down in front of him: the President of the United States.

The President looks at him closely, reading him, and Clint closes his mouth as he regains his professional behavior, looking back at the President calmly.

"Mr. President. This is Agent Barton, one of our finest agents. He's more than capable of this mission, and that's why I have selected him for it," Fury says, directing the President's focus on him.

Great, Clint thinks, there goes my first day off in three months.

The President thinks this over and nods. "Very well, Director. If you believe in Agent Barton's abilities, then so do I. After all, he is your agent-you know him best," he said to Fury, but he turned his attention to Clint to say the next part. "Agent Barton. We need you to get rid of a problem. A big problem."

Clint's confused. A problem? That's really vague. "What kind of problem?" He asked when the President didn't continue explaining. Fury slid him a manilla folder.

He looked at Fury, then Coulson, then the President, before looking back at Fury. Fury gestured with his hand as if to say 'go on, open it.' 

Clint nodded before looking back at the folder. This folder holds his next mission, whatever that may be. He slowly opened the folder, but didn't look at the name. He didn't want to know the name just yet. He liked learning about his mission before he learned the name and the face.

This person is expertly skilled. They know how to kill with every weapon imaginable, even with their bare hands, and maybe even their feet. The file says that the target, a female, is also expertly trained in the art of seduction. It's a good thing Clint doesn't waver anymore when people try to seduce him. 

When he looks at the picture, he freezes. He slowly lifts his head up to look at Fury in the eye and ask, "You want me to kill her?" His voice is quiet and if his voice doesn't give away how scared he is, then his eyes do.

Fury looked him in the eyes as he spoke. "If anyone's capable of doing this, then it's you."

Clint nods slowly and looks back down at the picture. He inhales slowly and exhales just as slowly, fully aware of the eyes on him. Finally, he looks back up and looks at the President in the eyes before saying, "When do I start?"

The President smiles and says, "That's what I like to hear. You might want to start training as soon as possible. In everything."

Clint nods, then smirks, getting his cocky attitude back. "Want to see me train, Mr. President, sir?"

Fury looks like he wants to hit him over the head, like he has before, for saying something like that to the President.

The President just smiles and says, "I'd love to, Agent Barton. This was the only thing on my To-Do list for today."

Clint smiles a genuine smile. "Huh, maybe this isn't a waste of a day off, huh Coulson?" He asks, enthusiastic. Coulson just shakes his head before standing up, Fury doing the same and Clint following suit. 

The President and his guards stand up and follow Clint and Coulson out of the door and to the shooting range. Fury has already cleared this side of the building, so he doesn't have to worry about anyone hogging up the range, like usual. 

Once they get there, Clint immediately goes for the bow and arrows that are hanging away from the rest of the bows. He had a special hook, courtesy of Coulson, put up just for his favorite bow. 

The President looks curious, yet amused, at his choice of weapon. Clint smirked as he moved to the range and nocked an arrow. He inhaled and held it as he lines up the shot, then let the string go as he exhaled. He hit the middle of the bullseye, which was pretty impressive, but not for Clint. That was an everyday occurrence. He did the same thing again and split the other arrow in half as it hit the bullseye. And he did it again, before turning around to meet his audience.

Coulson looked proud of him, and Clint couldn't help but to smile at that look. Fury looked proud of him and also slightly amazed since he had never seen him split an arrow that many times in a row. The President looked happy. He looked like the happiest man alive. 

"So, are you ready to take out Natalia Romanova now?" The President asked Clint calmly.

Clint knocked an arrow and shot it at a different target without looking and when it hit the bullseye, he looked back at the President. "Yes, sir. I'm ready."

"Good. You have two weeks to train before you're being shipped out to Budapest." After he said that, the President and his bodyguards left the triskelion via a helicopter that landed on the roof.

Fury looked at Coulson, then at Clint. "Well, it looks like you have some training to do." Then he left the room, leaving Coulson with Clint.

Clint smiled at Coulson, and he returned it. "Get some sleep first, Barton. You're definitely going to need it." 

"You got it, Coulson. Sleep, eat, train, repeat," Clint said in a mocking tone. Coulson smiled and shook his head as he left the room, leaving Clint in the shooting range alone.

"I really hope I can do this," he muttered to himself as he put his bow and arrows away.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit long, and I put a lot of effort into it. I hope you enjoy Chapter 2 of Budapest.

Clint trained everyday for the next two weeks, trying to perfect his abilities for this mission. He started with hand-to-hand combat training with Maria Hill, who was one of the only people at SHIELD who could beat him. He perfected his gymnastics. Natalia's file said that she's more than an expert in gymnastics, so Clint needed to be better than her if he wanted to kill her. He perfected his already perfect shooting abilities in the range, with his bow and with many of the guns. 

He has to sneak up on the Black Widow during his mission, which is hard to do with any Russian spy, so he started working on his stealthiness. He started taking the vents everywhere he went, and he'd randomly drop out of them and scare the new recruits more than one time (one actually pissed their pants). He needed to be better than just scaring the newbies, he had to be able to sneak up on someone who's more heavily trained...

"You want me to do what?" Maria Hill asked him with a slight frown of confusion on her face.

Clint sighed and repeated his words. "Will you pretend to be a Black Widow so I can try to sneak up on you and become better at stealth stuff?" He asked again, sounding hopeful.

Maria gave him a strange look, but finally agreed. "Fine. But you have to take me to dinner before you leave."

Clint nodded, he could do that. "Deal. You just have to stand here and if you hear me, then you can give me hell. But not too much hell. Remember, Maria, I leave in four days."

Hill nodded to his conditions and turned around as Barton left the training room. She stood there for almost ten minutes before she heard Clint. She turned quickly in her spot and, sure enough, there was Clint, who was trying to be stealthy.

She attacked immediately, and it almost caught him off guard. Almost. He saw her first move coming, a right-handed punch to his face, so he blocked it and spun her around to hold her arm behind her back.

Hill thought fast, and used their position to flip Clint over her and onto his back. Clint used his position on the floor to his advantage, as he pulled hard on her ankles to bring her down next to him. They continued wrestling on the floor, rolling around and fighting for the upper hand.

But after a few tosses, turns, and hair pulling, Maria had him pinned to the ground with a knife pressing to his throat. They stayed like that, panting and sweaty, until Hill put her knife in her thigh sheath and got up. She held out a hand for Clint to take, which he did.

"You need to work on stealth. I mean, you're supposed to be one of our best agents, Barton," Hill says as she finally caught all of her breath from their spar.

Clint huffed out a laugh. That's as close to a joke as you can get with Maria Hill. "Thanks. I'll work on that," he paused and thought about their spar. "But, Hill, why did you put a knife to my throat?"

Hill shrugged. "I thought it was a nice touch."

Clint smiled and shook his head at her. Only Maria Hill could think of it as a nice touch to put a knife to someone's throat. "Hey, I'm going to go clean up, shower, then I'll take you to dinner. Deal?"

Hill smiled and started heading out. "Deal." As she reached the door, she paused and turned around halfway. "And don't forget that we told Fury that we'd spar in front of the new recruits to show them how it's done." With that, she turned around again and left to go shower before dinner.

Clint, as he said, went to the showers to clean up before heading to his room and changing out of his training clothes. He put on a pair of simple jeans and a purple shirt. Maria and him do things like this all the time. When one of them asks a favor, they pay them back with dinner. It's a nice system that they have, and they don't plan on stopping it any time soon. 

He walked down the hall and stopped outside of a door. He knocked three times, then once, then two more times—their special knock. Clint and Maria aren't dating, nor are they having an affair, they're just really close friends. They can tell each other everything by just communicating with their eyes and movements. They'll also use sign language if Clint forgot to put in his hearing aids again.

Hill answers the door, wearing a pair of skinny jeans and a plain black shirt. She steps into the hall and closes her door behind her. 

"Figures you'd wear purple," Maria says as they start walking through the building to the exit.

"What's wrong with purple? It's a good color!" Clint defends as he holds the door open for her. 

"Yeah, yeah, whatever Clint. You're driving," Maria says as she grabs Clint's keys from the hook. She tosses his keys to him and he catches them flawlessly.

"I know. How's burgers sound?" Clint asks, starting up the car and leaving the garage.

"Sounds great," Maria says.

Clint drives to the burger place that's down the street from SHIELD HQ. Once there, they both get out and Clint locks the car behind them. They've been to this specific place a lot, mainly because they have the best burgers in all of New York. 

Clint opens the door for Maria again, something that he does because even though he's a Level Seven spy, doesn't mean that chivalry is dead within him.

They choose their usual booth and their usual waitress brings out their usual meals when she sees them. Yeah, they go to this place a lot. Clint always get a burger with everything except mushrooms on it, fries, and a black coffee. Maria gets a burger, but only with pickles and cheese on hers, with a side of fries and a decaf coffee.

They joke about the new recruits that Clint's been scaring, and even Maria has scared a few of them before she's had her morning coffee. Maria is not much of a morning person without her coffee.

Near the end of their meal, they talk about the mission. Clint is leaving in a few days, but so is Maria, apparently. Sure, Clint is the main person on the team who's going to take out Natalia, but this mission is so risky that he needs an extraction team. Maria is on that team, along with a tech wiz named Henry Richards.

Agent Richards is a level four tech wizard. He went through the academy, like every other SHIELD agent, except for Clint. Clint's the exception, since he was taken in by Coulson and trained by Coulson. Agent Richards was usually not a field agent, but desperate times and desperate measures. They need his brains on the team, and that also means that they need to get to know him better. They both agreed that they'd each talk to him before the leave for the mission. 

Clint drives them back to HQ and they each walk to their rooms. Clint changed into his workout clothes again and started heading down to the training room, but thought of something else. When he entered the elevator, he pushed the button for Coulson's floor instead of the training rooms.

He stepped off of the elevator and stopped in front of Coulson's door, much like he did when he picked up Maria Hill. He knocked twice, then three times, then twice again.

"Come in, Barton,"'Coulson says from inside. 

Clint smiles as he pushes open the door and takes a seat in front of Coulson's desk. "I need a small favor."

Coulson sighs and puts down his pen, looking up at Clint. "Of course you do. What is it this time?" 

"Well," Clint starts, "I need to know where Agent Henry Richards is. I need to talk to him."

Coulson looks at him and nods. "Last I saw him, he was in the lounge room on his computer."

Clint smiles and stands up. "Great. Thanks, Phil." He leaves Coulson's office with a final wave to him and he closes the door behind him.

Clint takes the ventilation system down to the training room floor to, hopefully, find Richards. When he gets above the right room, he drops down and out of the vents. He hears a gasp of fright as he does so and smirks, turning around. He sees Richards, in a comfortable armchair in the corner of the room, who is now staring at him.

"Hey, Richards. We need to talk, but I also need to train. Walk with me?" Clint asks.

Henry looks unsure, but nods anyways. "Yeah, sure," he mumbles. He unplugs his laptop and puts it in its carrier case. He throws it over his shoulder and starts walking to catch up with Clint.

They walk side-by-side as they enter the training room that Clint's been using for the past week and a half. Clint walks to one of the punching bags and puts on his handwraps to start boxing. Richards walks over and sits next to him, studying him. 

"So, Richards. Tell me about yourself. We'll be going on a mission soon and I need to trust you. After you tell me about you, I'll tell you about me," Clint said as he started punching the bag. 

"Okay. Well I'm a level four agent. I have a cat named Oreo. I graduated high school at age fourteen, and college at age seventeen. After that, I was recruited by SHIELD to become a techie, so I went through the academy to learn the basics. That's about it," Henry said, thinking about his words as he spoke them.

Clint's eyebrows rose in shock. He knew Richards was smart, but he didn't know he was this smart. "Wow. I'm glad you're on this mission then," Clint said, still hitting the punching bag and throwing in a few combos. "You can ask me anything. I'm a pretty open person, Henry."

Richards nodded and thought about his questions before speaking. "How old were you when they recruited you?" Was his first question.

Clint smiled. No one had asked him that before. "I was sixteen years old."

Henry makes a small noise of surprise and nods, clearly taking in the information. "So you didn't go to school? Or did you graduate early, like me?"

Clint laughed at the second question. "I dropped out when I was thirteen, kid."

Henry's mouth dropped open in shock. "What? Why?" 

Clint shook his head. "What, do you want me to tell you my whole life story or something?"

Henry considered this then shrugged. "Sure, why not."

Clint stopped punching and held onto the bag to look at Henry. "It was sarcasm, dude."

Richards looked honestly confused at that. "Oh. Well, will you tell me something about your past?"

Clint sighed and resumed training. "I joined the circus," Clint said after he thought for awhile.

Henry didn't laugh or anything, like they usually do. He just sat there and nodded, taking in the new information about his new partner.

They continued like this for the rest of the afternoon, sharing little bits of themselves to each other. After several hours of them talking and Clint switching equipment, they went their separate directions. Clint went to the showers, and Henry went back to his room. They both said they'd meet in the shooting range tomorrow to continue talking. 

Clint walked to his room after his shower and immediately threw himself onto his bed. He fell asleep almost immediately.  
_______________________________________  
"Okay, new recruits, are you ready to see how two of our top agents spar?" Sharon Carter asked the group of newbies. They just stood there, but some of them nodded, so she smiled. "Whenever you're ready Agents!" 

Clint and Maria got in their stances as they waited for the other to make the first move. "Remember, Hill. Fight back hard. I need the training for the mission," he said.

Maria nodded, and after a moment, she made the first move. She kicks out her left leg to kick him in the stomach and hits, but Clint grabs her leg and twists it around, causing her to spin. She kicks back into his stomach more and his grip on her loosens. She pulls her foot away from him and goes to punch him, but Clint catches her arm before it hits his face and he twists her wrist. She gasps in surprise, but quickly recovers as she fights back.

Clint quickly advances on her and drops down lown to kick her feet out from under her. Once she hits the ground, Clint's on her in half a second, restraining her limbs. Clint pins her arms down and he sits low enough on her so that she can't kick him in the back of the head. 

Maria smiles and says, "Congrats, Clint. You have successfully pinned down a level eight agent. How does it feel?"

Clint smiles back at her. "It feels great! So, am I ready to take down a Black Widow then?"

Maria considers this and nods. "I believe you can, but don't you dare stop training just because I said that."

Clint laughs as he gets up and offers her a hand up. She takes it and he hauls her on her own two feet again. "I won't stop training. We still have three more days before we leave."

Sharon starts waving us over, so we walk over towards her and the new recruits. "Everyone, this is Agent Barton and Agent Hill. Both of them are high-ranking agents here at SHIELD. You just saw them sparring, and while Director Fury asked them to in order to show you how we do things around here, they're also training for a mission that they're leaving for soon. Isn't that right, agents?"

Clint smiled and took the initiative to respond. "That's correct, Agent Carter. However, all of the details are classified since it's an important mission. No one can know anything until it's taken care of." 

Several of the new recruits asked to tell them anyways, but Clint and Maria didn't budge. After a few more questions about what they do at SHIELD, Sharon steered the recruits out of the training room and continued with their tour.

"Good session, Clint," Hill said, referring to their spar.

Clint smiled, proud of himself. "Yeah? I thought so too. I'll be in here again tomorrow if you want to spar again."

Maria nodded. "Yeah, sure. Are you still going to practice shooting this afternoon?"

"Yeah," Clint said. "I'm going to be with Agent Richards. We're bonding," Clint said smugly. 

"Oh yeah? Fine. But I'm talking to him tomorrow," Maria said, no, more like demanded.

"Deal. I'm going to get some lunch in the cafeteria. Wanna come with?" Clint asked as he started heading towards the showers.

"Might as well. I don't have anything else better to do," she said as she headed towards her showers too.

Clint showered quickly, eager to get to the food as quickly as possible. He stepped out of the shower and toweled himself dry and then got dressed into his change of clothes. He exited the bathroom with his dark blond hair still damp from his shower. He met with Maria in the dining hall, who already had her meal in front of her. The options weren't that great, but it was good for short notice. 

They sat in a comfortable silence as they ate their food, both too absorbed in their own little worlds to fully acknowledge the other. When they both finished their lunches, they threw away their trash and headed to their next destinations. 

Clint went to his favorite lounge room to watch the rain come down and hit the windows. The soft pitter patter of the rain was calming and it was even more calming to look at. Sometimes he would take out his hearing aids and just watch the rain as it hit the windows and exploded onto the hard surface. Clint sat there for hours, just thinking about everything and nothing at once. This is one of his happy places, the other being on the roof.

Clint sighed and checked his watch, seeing that it's about six o'clock. He got up and started headings towards the shooting range that he told Richards he'd meet him at.

When he got to the range, he saw that Richards was already there, sitting on a bench with a cup of Starbucks next to him and his laptop on his lap. He looked up when Clint entered and smiled at him in greeting. Clint smiled back tiredly and grabbed his bow to start target practice.

Much like yesterday, they shared little details about their lives and personalities. Clint had gone through all of the weapons that he's taking on this mission, and perfected them, when Clint felt like he could trust Agent Richards. He had a feeling that Richards could trust him too. 

After hours of shooting and talking, they went to their rooms for the night. Like every other night for the past week, Clint lay awake in his bed, staring up at the ceiling. He couldn't stop thinking about his mission. He needed to kill her, but what if he couldn't? What if he failed and so many more innocent people died because of it? He couldn't think like that, though. This is possibly his biggest mission to date, and he wasn't going to mess it up by psyching himself out. 

He needed to get sleep or he'll be miserable on his mission in a couple of days. He was sore from the nonstop training, but he couldn't stop yet. He wasn't Black Widow material yet, but he was almost there. He fell asleep to the belief that all he needed was a little more training until he could take the Widow down in a battle.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry it took so long to update! School and marching band is taking up a lot of my time right now. Anyways, enjoy!

The last few days before the mission flew by for Clint and his team. They had just boarded the SHIELD jet to get to a safe house in Budapest. They would stay there for a night and then get into position the morning after. Clint slept about half of the way there—he was determined to not get jet lagged too badly.

When they finally landed about nine hours later, Coulson woke him up from his three-hour nap. They all get up and leave the jet, only to get into a black SUV to be taken to the safe house. The drive was only two hours from where the jet landed. When they got there, Clint claimed one of the bedrooms to put his bag in, before walking into the main area of the small house. He ate the dinner that Coulson made (ramen noodles), then went directly into his room to pass out on his bed. The rest of his team followed suit and went to bed as soon as they could. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.  
________________________________________  
"Clint, don't forget anything," Coulson said. They're leaving soon and Coulson has been reminding him to not forget anything for the past ten minutes. It was starting to annoy Clint.

"Yes, Phil, I know. You've been saying the same thing for the past ten minutes," Clint said, voicing his thoughts.

"I know that, Clint, but, while you're one of our best, you're also one of our most forgetful," Coulson threw back, teasingly.

Clint scoffed. "Well, I'm ready," he said as he threw one last thing into the bag. "How about you, Hill?"

"I'm good to go, Barton," she said, shouldering her bag. "Are you ready, Richards?"

"Yeah, I'm ready," Henry said, grabbing his tech gear and standing up.

"Looks like we're all good to go then," Coulson said, also standing up. "Barton, you might want to keep your bow in its case until you get into position. We don't want to be scaring any citizens this mission."

Clint nodded, quickly putting his bow in its case. They all went outside, carrying their bags, to the black SUV that they'll use for transportation and a control center.

Coulson got into the driver's seat, turned it on, and then turned back to look at the three of them. "Okay, guys, don't forget to use each other's code-names in the field. Barton is Hawkeye, or Hawk. Hill, you're Blue. Richards is Red. I'm the Eagle. This is the Eagle's Nest. Everyone got that?" Coulson asked. He looked at all of them in the eyes as they nodded. He seemed pleased by what he saw, or didn't see, because he turned around in his seat and started driving. 

Everyone was silent, all of them thinking the same thing: this is it. This is what they've been training for for the past two weeks. Clint kept a calm and cool exterior as he thought about how he has to take a highly skilled Black Widow's life tonight.

The ride to Clint's dropoff point wasn't a long one, only a couple of hours away. Before Clint could open the doors to get out, though, Coulson grabbed his wrist gently. Clint turned back to look Coulson in the eyes, questioningly.

"Don't get too badly hurt, Clint. Okay?" Clint's shocked at how much emotion Coulson is showing on his face, most of it's concern and worry.

Clint nodded. "Don't worry about me, Phil. I always come back." With one last smile, Clint got out of the van and started making his way to his position. He walked to his spot at a brisk pace, climbing up the sides of buildings and jumping across rooftops to get there. "Checking, checking," Clint said into his earpiece as he neared his position. "Hawk to Eagle's Nest."

"Good, your comms are working," Richards said into his ear, making Clint laugh.

"I'm in position," Clint said. He crouched down and started rooting through his equipment to find what he'd need. He took his bow out of its case, along with his quiver. He put the quiver on his back and pulled out his binoculars and special, high-tech goggles. He put them on his head, resting them on the top instead of over his eyes. He layed down on his stomach, adjusting his binoculars so that he can see clearly. 

He looked through the binoculars and into a room across from him, and down a couple if floors. Natalia would be in the room sometime tonight, along with her target. Clint was ordered to kill both Natalia and her target, since they're both enemies of SHIELD. 

"You better settle in, guys. It's gonna be a long wait." He got a few groans, followed by laughs on the other side, which made him smile.  
________________________________________  
About sixteen hours and a million dick jokes later, Clint finally saw movement inside of the room. He immediately grew serious and started to focus on his mission.

"I have eyes on Widow," Clint whispered into his comm. Both of his targets had entered the room, lip-locked. It's obvious that Natalia was only using the guy to get information before she killed him. Clint had spotted the gun on her dress the moment it hit the floor, but the other hadn't noticed.

Clint focused on his targets, and he saw his opportunity. He quickly got to his feet, nocked an arrow, and aimed. He let out a breath as he fired the arrow. It landed in the back of the guy's head, right where Clint wanted it to go. "One down, one to go," he said quietly as he put his bow down and grabbed a fully loaded pistol from his bag.

"I'm going in," Clint said. "Hawkeye's going silent. Only speak if it's an emergency." He started running to his entrance point, a fire escape near the room that Natalia's still in. 

He stopped right outside of her door. Natalia Romanova, a highly skilled Black Widow, is behind this door, and Clint has to kill her before she kills him. He readjusted his goggles so that they were on his face and covering his eyes. He could see better with them on since they're night vision, too. He took a deap breath in, and out, before he opened the door and stood in the doorway with a neutral look on his face.

He saw movement behind the bed, realizing that she's getting her dress back on. She probably has her gun out now, too. He just stood in the doorway and waited for her to make the first move. They're at a stalemate. He stood there for almost five minutes before Natalia slowly popped her head up from behind the bed. She looked confused as she saw him there, just standing in the doorway, and blocking her only exit point without jumping out of a window and falling to her inevitable death.

She finally made the first move, standing up quickly, bringing her gun up as she did so. She fired a couple shots, only missing because Clint moved too fast and dodged them all. Clint fired a shot, hitting the gun out of her hands and onto the floor before it slid under the bed. Natalia looked at Clint, but she glanced at the gun under the bed, making her intentions clear.

Clint lunged after her, trying to prevent her from getting the weapon. She moved at the same time as Clint grabbing the gun as he got to her. Clint was on her in an instant, pinning her arms down to the floor and straddling her body, all with a neutral expression on his face.

"Give up now, Natalia," Clint said to her, careful to keep any emotion out of his voice. He could see the shock in her eyes before she could stop herself. She's shocked that Clint knows her name.

"How do you know my name?" She says without showing any emotions.

Clint smirks. "What? I like to research my target's before I go after 'em. Don't you?" Clint teased. Clint used his teasing nature as an advantage, surprising and confusing his enemies all at once.

Natalia moves her fingers slightly, but then, all at once, she flips them over on their sides, almost catching him off guard. Almost. 

Clint smiles then, wrestling on the floor with the infamous Black Widow. She's strong, stronger than almost anyone he's ever fought or sparred with. Clint tries several times to knock the gun from her hand, but she's relentless and won't let go. Clint knocks Natalia's hand on the wall, hard, finally seeing the gun fall from her grip. He quickly took the gun and tossed it behind him to join his own gun, which he'd dropped in his attempt to stop Natalia from retrieving her gun earlier.

Natalia takes his distraction and kicks his legs out from under him, causing him to fall on top of her. She quickly rolled them over so that she ended up on top, pinning Clint down to the floor. Clint's eyes searched frantically for a way out, finally, his eys landed on her left knee. Her left knee was in the exact position for Clint to just kick out his leg and switch their positions, which is exactly what he did.

Within two seconds, Clint was on top of Natalia and he pinned her down so that she couldn't escape. She tried for about a minute before she stopped and gave in. Clint stared deep into her eyes, trying to find something, anything, as to why he shouldn't kill her. He finally found it, right there, deep in her eyes. Panic, wonder, and curiosity.

"Hawkeye! We're under attack!" Hill's voice came through on the comms. 

"Damn," Clint mutters. He looks at Natalia and sighs. "Get up. Get off the floor," he said, pulling her up with him. As soon as she was up, he turned her around and cuffed her wrists together with special cuffs. "Don't try to slip these, Natalia. It will only end in pain."

"Hawk! Eagle's Nest is under attack!" This time it was Coulson's voice. That can't be good.

Clint reached up to his earpiece and clicked the button to let him talk. "This is Hawkeye. What's going on down there?" Clint asked into the mic, walking Natalia out of the room and onto the fire escape.

"We're under fucking attack!" There's some static there, but Clint can tell that's Maria speaking. 

"Shit. We have to go, Natalia," Clint says hurriedly. They hurry up the pace, quickly making it to the spot where Clint was hiding out all day.

"We're -der fuc- attack fr- mobs!" Maria again. He could hear shooting, both in his earpiece and a few blocks away where the van is. The shooting is getting further away, though, so that means he won't have an extraction point. Well, shit.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Clint shouts angrily. He quickly gathers his bag and puts a pistol into the back of his pants, just in case. 

"You- on -ur o-n, B-ton!" Maria's voice says through the comms before it cuts out completely in static. He angrily take the earpiece out and stomps on it. He can only hear out of one ear now, since the comm was working as a hearing aid too. 

"Dammit!" He shouts. Natalia just watches him as he has a freakout. Suddenly, Clint picks up his bag and throws it over his shoulder and walks over to Natalia. "Come on. We're going to a safe house. I'll explain more there."

Natalia let herself be pushed and pulled down dark alleys and pathways. Neither of them spoke the whole way to the safe house, and about halfway through, Clint put a blindfold over Natalia's eyes so she couldn't find her way back.

When they finally got to the safe house, Clint ran his badge through the scanner and it let him in. He pushed Natalia in first, then closed the door behind them. "Ahhhh, home sweet home," Clint said as he lead Natalia to sit on the couch.

He gently took the blindfold off of Natalia and sat down beside her. "We're stuck here for awhile," Clint begins. "I lost contact with my team and I'm in the dark until further notice."

Natalia says nothing, only stares at him. Clint sighs, standing up. He goes to the keypad on the wall and secures the place so no one can get in or out without a SHIELD badge. He goes into the small kitchen that's connected to the living space. He makes sure he can see Natalia clearly before he makes something to eat.

"You want some ramen?" Clint asks, getting out a box for himself. Natalia shakes her head no in response. "Okay. I'm making myself some. I haven't eaten since this morning. I'm starved."

Clint made his giant bowl of ramen and ate it without taking his eyes off of Natalia. He doesn't trust her, and with good reason too. She could kill him, so he has good reason to not take his eyes off of her while he eats his ramen. He eats quickly, then cleans the dishes that he used.

"Do you want to take a shower?" Clint asked Natalia. He really wants to take a shower. 

"Yes," Natalia says. It's the first thing she's said since they fought in the hotel room.

Clint smiles and says, "Okay, follow me." And she does. She gets up from the couch and follows Clint into the medium-sized bathroom. "Okay. I'm going to uncuff you, but then I'm going to re-cuff you to the handrail in the shower," Clint said. He uncuffed her, and let her get undressed before cuffing her to the handrail in the bathroom.

Clint left the bathroom, waiting for the water to turn on before he went in search for fresh clothes for Natalia. By the time he got back to the bathroom, the water was off. He slowly opened the door to find Natalia sitting on the side of the tub, with a towel wrapped around herself. 

Clint stepped the whole way into the room, the clean clothes under his arm. "I brought you clean clothes," Clint said, setting the clothes down next to Natalia. He uncuffed her wrist from the railing and stood by as she got dressed quickly. He cuffed her again and they walked back out into the living space.

"You're going to stay out here while I shower. Got it?" Clint asked as Natalia sat back on the couch. She nodded and Clint went back to grab a change of clothes before heading to the bathroom.

He took a quick shower, only long enough to clean all of the dirt and dust that got on him during his mission, that is technically still going on. When he got out, he toweled himself dry and put on a pair of sweatpants and a loose ACDC shirt. He slipped in his extra pair of hearing aids and walked out of the door, through the small hallway, and into the tiny living room.

Clint was honestly surprised to see Natalia on the couch, just where he left her. He shrugged and yawned, too tired to care. 

"Come on," Clint said. "I'll show you to your room." Clint walked down the hallway, with Natalia following, and he opened a door to a mini bedroom. "This is it. I only ask you to do one thing: Don't kill me in my sleep. I'm exhausted and I bet you are too. Goodnight, Natalia." And with that, Clint left her in the bedroom to go further down the hall into his room for the night. 

Clint got on the bed and he started drifting off to sleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. He wasn't even worried that Natalia might come into his room to kill him. He did leave his hearing aids in for a reason.


End file.
